What: First ever Sarasota Memorial-Columbia University Medical Center Cardiac Summit, featuring the latest advances in cardiac care presented by internationally and nationally recognized cardiovascular specialists from Columbia and Sarasota Memorial, including Sarasota Memorial's incoming chief of cardiovascular surgery Jeffrey Sell, MD. The keynote speaker is Craig Smith, MD, chairman of the Department of Surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York and surgeon-in-chief at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and its Vivian and Seymour Milstein Family Heart Center. In 2004, he gained worldwide renown for performing a successful quadruple bypass on former President Bill Clinton. He will discuss the latest preventative, diagnostic and treatment options for aortic valve disease, including gender specific outcomes and Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR)

Media Contact: News representatives are invited to attend all or portion of the event. An agenda is attached. Please call Kim Savage at (941) 893-7649 for information or help in setting up interviews or photos.

Background: Last year, Sarasota Memorial announced an innovative partnership with New York's Columbia University Medical School to expand and enhance heart services for patients living in Southwest Florida. The affiliation gives Sarasota Memorial and its physicians 24/7 access to Columbia’s cardiac surgery faculty and researchers, as well as the latest technology and research initiatives. The academic medical center has long been ranked among the best academic medical schools and cardiovascular teaching programs in the nation. Columbia’s Division of Cardiac Surgery, ranked sixth in the nation for cardiovascular care by U.S. News & World Report,

The benefits of this important collaboration are already evident:

Last year, Sarasota Memorial opened the area's first Valve Clinic to identify patients with heart valve disorders who can benefit from a new minimally invasive procedure called Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) available at Sarasota Memorial.

TAVR is the only catheter-based treatment option for people with severe aortic valve disease who are not eligible for surgery. Instead of performing open heart surgery on frail patients, surgeons now can replace the valve through a small opening near the groin. TAVR has been shown to dramatically improve a patient’s quality of life. SMH has performed 17 procedures to date.

Also late last year, Sarasota Memorial opened a new hybrid Cardiac Catheterization-Operating Room. The state-of-the-art surgical/interventional suite allows cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons to simultaneously treat patients who have more than one heart condition – so patients don't have to go through multiple procedures and recovery periods. Offering a full range of interventional, imaging, minimally invasive and open heart surgery capabilities in one surgical suite means less time to treatment, more treatment options and better outcomes, especially in emergency situations.

Sarasota Memorial's partnership with Columbia also played a significant role in the selection of its new chief of Cardiovascular Surgery Jeffrey Sell, MD, whose graduate studies and medical training took place at the world’s top universities – Harvard, MIT and Yale.